Are gaming laptops good yet?

[Ashleyxoxo]

Looking for something around the $1-1.5k range that plays PS5 quality titles. Is this possible?

[Femininity]

What screen size? How important is portability? Do you plan to connect it to an external monitor?

I bought this as a travel work/gaming laptop and it suits my needs perfectly when I'm out of town or otherwise away from my desktop. It gets fairly warm under load, but it was well-worth the $1489+tax I paid for it at the time.

As far as "PS5 quality" goes, I can play Horizon: Zero Dawn at 1440p on an external monitor at 60fps+ @ ultra settings, 120fps+ @ optimized settings.

[Ashleyxoxo]

What screen size? How important is portability? Do you plan to connect it to an external monitor?

I bought this as a travel work/gaming laptop and it suits my needs perfectly when I'm out of town or otherwise away from my desktop. It gets fairly warm under load, but it was well-worth the $1489+tax I paid for it at the time.

That looks good. I only care about being able to play in my bed, on an HD/1080p screen.

[Sughs]

3 months ago I bought a Nitro 5 with a 3060 for 960 euros. No regrets so far.

[ReD-EyeD]

No, but low end, low requirements gaming became really good and is better every year.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Not without cooking your lap or the laptop, you're going to need something to put it on that will allow it to vent the heat that it'll be generating if you're running anything above minimum settings.

[Ashleyxoxo]

Not without cooking your lap or the laptop, you're going to need something to put it on that will allow it to vent the heat that it'll be generating if you're running anything above minimum settings.

Yikes, I plan on playing for hours at a time. Maybe I should get a handheld PC (gpd win 3) instead?

[Femininity]

That looks good. I only care about being able to play in my bed, on an HD/1080p screen.

I'd suggest a lap pad then, to insulate your legs and bits from the murder fumes.

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Yikes, I plan on playing for hours at a time. Maybe I should get a handheld PC (gpd win 3) instead?

That's not a great solution if you're looking for anything within shouting distance of PS5 quality.

[Ashleyxoxo]

I'd suggest a lap pad then, to insulate your legs and bits from the murder fumes.

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That's not a great solution if you're looking for anything within shouting distance of PS5 quality.

Are you able to play for hours without frying your laptop?

[Femininity]

Are you able to play for hours without frying your laptop?

Yeah, fairly comfortably. I put 4 hours straight into Cyberpunk 2077 over a long work weekend and it's no worse for wear.

[Twoddle]

So called gaming laptops shouldn't really be a thing, play games on a desktop.

[Ashleyxoxo]

So called gaming laptops shouldn't really be a thing, play games on a desktop.

I don't like sitting on a chair, plus the gfx cards are hard to get.

[Jastall]

"Good" is subjective obviously. You'll never approach the performance, upgrade and repair potential of a desktop. Cost used to be a factor but now that parts, especially GPUs, are worth their weight in gold laptops damn near pull out ahead in this department. You're definitely going to want a pad not only to be able to play it on your lap, but to insulate whatever you're playing on in general. Back then I murdered the varnish on my desk by playing games on it with my old laptop. Be wary also of long gameplay sessions, a friend of mine gamed a lot on his laptop and performance started to noticeably dropped after a while. I don't know if that was an issue with his machine however.

"PS5 quality" is pretty general, my guess is that you'd need something with at least a 3070 for a smooth 1440p experience with all but the most demanding/poorly optimized games, which might strain your budget a bit, in order to approach the quality of a 4K capable console. Going for 1080p means a 3060 will be more than enough and might be more towards what you want but falls off the PS5 mark.

[dacoolist]

Looking for something around the $1-1.5k range that plays PS5 quality titles. Is this possible?

I spent 924U$D for my 17" asus strix 1 back like 4 years ago

I personally love the device - BUT - if you're comparing it to a custom built system then my device is probably shit compared. The reason I buy laptops and specifically gaming laptops is the ability to be able to pick up and go anywhere and game without issue - again if you want power for money: the best option is a custom build - but surprisingly: laptops are getting pretty damn fast now

[Erous]

Looking for something around the $1-1.5k range that plays PS5 quality titles. Is this possible?

MMO Champ laptop reviews are about as biased and ill-informed as the Windows 10 and 11 reviews. The only pieces of feedback that are accurate are the positive ones and the ones that mention heat. tl;dr: Yes, gaming laptops are good and are a thing and they have been for many years for those who require portability. As some have mentioned: yes, you can play triple A titles at max settings 1440p without skipping a beat. Yes, many if not all of them will get very warm making lap playing difficult especially if you're planning on playing in bed.

Most of the warmth though will be at the top parts towards the screen section and where the blowers are blowing heat. So, if your legs are spread out and the blowers are in the back, expect a nice space heater to keep you warm. MSI, Alienware, ASUS and Razer are probably your best options to look at but with portability and performance comes a higher cost.

[snebb]

I bought a mid-tier gaming laptop just over 1 year ago. This one, to be precise: https://www.amazon.es/ASUS-TUF-Gamin.../dp/B084DRTHJY
It manages to run everything I want on max settings, but can get hot after log play sessions.

The one thing I didn't expect was a hard-performance drop after 5months of use. At the time, I was running HC Nathria and I couldn't do shit on Sire & kept getting 5-10sec freezes. I resolved it by taking the back off and cleaning out the dust with compressed air. I now do this every 3months, or sooner if I notice the laptop is hotter than usual.

Make sure to take this into consideration, as taking the back off will void any warranty usually but it's probably gunna be essential to keep it running well. (My apartment is super dusty though).

[Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang]

My brother recently got himself a Lenovo Legion 5 with Ryzen 7 + RTX 3070 for less than 1.5k. He missed the deal on the neater 5 Pro 16' so he got the 17' version (directly from Lenovo store). Performance wise those are good value as their GPU are rated with the highest TDP design values.

There are a number of good 15' and 17' models from different manufacturers that can fall within your budget, depending on the deals and stock available in your geographical area. If you want to extensively use it on your laps, better pick a model on the large end, with a decent heat management system, maybe pick a slightly lesser GPU, and not a Dell (those, AFAIK, run very hot).

Regardless, you could combine it with something like a Targus Lap Chill Mat.

Unless you really need it for Thunderbolt or else, prefer an AMC Ryzen CPU to an Intel one, as the latter have a substantially lower energy efficiency (they will consume more power/run hotter at equivalent performance).

[Ashleyxoxo]

Overheating is sounding bad. I play sporadically: I could play for 8 hours one day and then not at all the next. I don't want performance to drop or the laptop to fry.

[Aleksej89]

gaming laptops overall always bad.
very high price, poor performance compared to price.

overheating problems, lowers performance even more.
also uncomfortable to touch due to heat, unwise to place it on bed/cloth due to pillows/sheets blocking air flow.
small keyboard, small monitor - and usually low quality monitor.
external larger keyboard and larger monitor almost mandatory for comfortable/serious gaming.

prone to hardware malfunctions, if they occur you often have to send the entire laptop to faraway service due to warranty.
that means you are without the laptop for weeks until it gets back - if it gets fixed at all.
as time passes replacement parts can be difficult to find depending on manufacturer and model.
obviously laptops extremely vulnerable to liquid spills and any physical damage, which further voids warranty.

the only situation in which i would recommend buying a gaming laptop is if you live like a nomad.
if you are on the road 24/7/365 and you literally do not spend a single week in the same room then you could consider a gaming laptop.
otherwise its a bad investment compared to a proper gaming pc.

[PixelFox]

I have a 17" Alienware m17(?) with a 2070 from 2020 (there's one generation newer I believe) that has really great thermals and is quiet much of the time. It has a 300Hz refresh screen that I rarely use as I have it set up as a desktop with a 34" LG ultrawide monitor and do everything on it. Runs games great. I have been using laptops for gaming for quite a few years now with no complaints.

That said, if you have the space for a desktop you can likely get more bang for your buck as well as having much more ability to upgrade things and keep the core system for more years before replacing the motherboard etc. But if you want a laptop there are perfectly good ones for high end gaming. Expect to pay maybe $500 more for the laptop than for the equivalent desktop.